Dan Lonergan

Dan Lonergan's media career spans almost 20 years, but his love of sport goes back to that wonderful Ashes series in 1974/75 and the 1975 VFL season, when he became fascinated by the voices he would hear at footy and cricket matches on the radio and television.His future career path was set in stone by the age of six in 1975, when he started practising commentating using one of his father's belts, which Dan said was always better in his hands than his dad's.When the replay would start, Dan's dad would send Dan and his two brothers to bed and then allow Dan back downstairs once his brothers were asleep to watch the replay and sometimes turn the sound down and commentate.He listened to all the stations, but the ABC took his fancy and to work as a sports broadcaster became his dream throughout his school days when he would annoy friends in the playground, who were trying to play footy with his commentary.After a long apprenticeship in commercial radio in western Victoria, Dan landed his dream job as a cadet in the Melbourne sports department in 1997 and broadcast AFL footy including his first final when Wayne Carey booted seven goals to sink Geelong.He then moved to Western Australia and spent three years there where he called all Eagles and Dockers AFL matches, state cricket and was part of the ABC's team that covered the Olympics.This meant a new challenge learning new sports such as volleyball, handball and weightlifting, where he was given less than a minute's notice to cover a new event, the women's clean and jerk and snatch.He moved back to Melbourne in 2001 to the sports department and among his many highlights have been heading our AFL coverage, broadcasting state and international cricket, covering six Australian Open tennis tournaments and being in Athens with the ABC Radio team and covering 13 sports at the 2004 Games.Away from the ABC and sport, Dan is like Forrest Gump and loves to run long distances.He also likes cooking and eating pasta, especially carbonara and spending quality time with his wife Jody and two active children Laura and Alex.He also hopes that one day the Western Bulldogs might win the big one. That occupation though is fast becoming a health hazard.Follow Dan on Twitter: @daniellonergan